The Jewel Ball
February 29, 2020
The Jewel Ball finally arrived and was a great success! The first Ball at the new Dickies Arena was quite a contrast from the Fort Worth Rodeo hosted at the Arena just a few weeks prior. Seductive lighting, carpeting, “mirrored ladies”, and huge decorative trees that centered the Arena décor created a fun and elegant ambiance. My co-chair, Sally Prater, and I loved planning “One Enchanted Evening” for our Jewel Charity President, Lou Martin.
The night began in our cocktail lounge in the Dickies Atrium, which had previously held cattle for the Rodeo! Paper City chronicled our event with snapshots of our bedazzled guests.
Over 1450 partiers then proceeded back to the Arena floor for a 3-course, seated dinner. Knowing the proper etiquette of “bread plate on your left” was pretty essential with all the cutlery and china arranged on the tables! The band, Powerhouse, from Miami, kept the party rocking until midnight, when we all had to leave, just like Cinderella.
It was a beautiful party for a most worthy cause—raising monies for the children at Cook Children’s Medical Center. After a year and a half of meetings, planning sessions, tastings, décor ideas and what-dress-do-we-wear decisions, our Ball raised over $2.5 million for uncompensated care and stroke patients. Little did we know on that evening, but we were the last charity event of the 2020 spring season. The coronavirus swept out the fun and brought in caution and quarantine.
